Saving information from information retrieval systems

ABSTRACT

A method and system for allowing a calling party to save information obtained from an information retrieval system. The caller may select options to save the information to a memory location, e.g., the caller&#39;s own network-based voice mail system or a temporary voice mailbox provided for the caller by the information provider, from which the caller can subsequently retrieve and review the information. The information may be saved to an Internet-based website from which the caller may subsequently retrieve the information. The information may be forwarded to a separate telephone directory number for receipt by a third person or for storing on a remote voice mail system. Additionally, the information may be electronically mailed to the caller&#39;s electronic mail address for subsequent retrieval. Discussions with a live attendant may be recorded and stored, as audio files or as converted to text, for access by or delivery to the caller.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/852,600 filedMay 24, 2004; which is in turn a continuation of application Ser. No.10/112,663 filed Mar. 29, 2002.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method system for allowing a calling partyto save for subsequent review information obtained from informationretrieval systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the modern telecommunications environment, people have grownaccustomed to receiving information from interactive informationretrieval systems. For example, a person may have an appointment with aphysician, but lacks information as to the driving directions to thephysician's office. Upon calling the physician's office to obtaindirections to the physician's office, the calling party most often isconnected to a recorded information retrieval system that provides thecalling party with a variety of types of information in response toselections from the calling party. For example, the system may instructthe calling party to “press ‘1’ to hear the operating hours of thephysician's office; press ‘2’ to receive driving instructions to thephysician's office; press ‘3’ for appointments; or press ‘4’ to speakwith an attendant.” If the calling party selects the drivinginstructions option, for example, the driving instructions to thephysician's office are typically played to the calling party over thecalling party's telephone. Unfortunately, if the calling party iscalling the physician's office from a wireless telephone while drivingto the physician's office, the calling party may have difficulty inmemorizing the driving instructions, and moreover, the calling party mayhave even more difficulty trying to obtain something in her vehicle forwriting down the instructions as the instructions are being played overthe wireless telephone and while the calling party is driving.Typically, in such a situation, in the interest of safety and in theinterest of obtaining the full content of the driving instructions, thecalling party must disconnect the call, pull off the road, obtain paperand pen, redial the physician's office, and write the drivinginstructions the next time the calling party receives the instructions.Other examples include calling a movie theater only to receive afast-paced recording of the movies and times of presentation while thecalling party scrambles to locate paper and pen to write down therelevant information so that the calling party does not have to call therecorded information system a second time.

Likewise, calling parties often desire to call information retrievalsystems that provide general information on a variety of topics. Forexample, information retrieval systems are available that allow callingparties to dial in to ask for information on a wide range of topics, forexample, sports information updates, medical information, and commercialofferings in a certain area, such as food, entertainment, drivingdirections and the like. For example, a calling party may dial into aninformation retrieval system, select a driving instructions function,and then provide the interactive information retrieval system with the“from” location and the “to” location to obtain driving directions fromthe calling party's present location to a desired location. As with thepreviously described situations, the information retrieved may belengthy and may be difficult for the calling party to absorb withoutwriting the information for subsequent review.

Furthermore, interactive voice response and information retrievalsystems sometimes make a live attendant or operator available tocallers. A caller in such cases may reach the live attendant eitherafter first navigating through one or several branches of an automatedattendant, or when the live attendant answers the call. In either case,the caller would benefit from the ability to have a record of theconversation available for retrieval after concluding the call, withoutattempting to take notes while listening to the live attendant andperhaps considering a response or follow-on question for the attendant.The benefit of freedom from note-taking may be even more important to acaller during a live conversation with an attendant, as a typical liveconversation lacks the structure of automated-attendant calls and mayproduce narrative responses that would require accurate and detailednote-taking, instead of eliciting relatively predictable or conciseinformation such as the starting times of shows or the like. Providersof live-attendant information systems would also benefit from providinga user-retrievable record of live conversations, because user access tothe record of a call can reduce the number of callbacks requestinginformation given during a previous discussion but not remembered orwritten down by the caller.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and system forallowing a calling party to save information obtained from informationretrieval systems to a memory location that may be subsequently accessedby the calling party for additional review of the saved information atthe convenience of the calling party. It is with respect to these andother considerations that the present invention has been made.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problemsare solved by a method and system for allowing a calling party to savefor subsequent retrieval and review information obtained from aninformation retrieval system. A calling party places a call to either aninteractive voice information retrieval system or to a telephonedirectory number that is associated with a telecommunicationsnetwork-based voice mail system that provides interactive information tocalling parties. The call is either routed directly to the generalinformation retrieval system or via the telecommunications network tothe network-based voice mail system. Once the calling party receivesdesired information, the calling party may select a number of options tosave the information to a memory location from which the calling partymay subsequently retrieve and review the information. The informationmay be sent to and stored at the calling party's own network-based voicemail system, or the calling party may have the information sent to andstored at a temporary voice mail box provided by the informationprovider. The information may be saved to an Internet-based website fromwhich the calling party may subsequently retrieve the information. Theinformation may be forwarded to a separate telephone directory numberfor receipt by a third person or for storing on a remote voice mailsystem. Additionally, the information may be electronically mailed tothe calling party's electronic mail address for subsequent retrieval.

Further in accordance with the present invention, the calling party maychoose to have the system record a session with a live operator orattendant after placing an information call either via a generalinformation retrieval system or a network-based voicemail system. If thecaller chooses to record the conversation for subsequent access, thelive attendant prompts the caller to choose delivery options forsubsequent access to the resulting record of the call. These deliveryoptions may include delivery by email to a default email addresspreviously established for the caller or to another email addressspecified by the caller. Other delivery options according to thedisclosed embodiment include delivery by voicemail to the caller, anddelivery to a Web address accessible to the caller. The caller is alsopresented with the option to receive the record of the call either as anaudio file or as converted to text via voice-to-text automatedconversion. After the conversation with the live attendant ends, thecaller may access the record of the call to play back or otherwisereview the recorded discussion with the live operator. The recording mayalso be initiated by the calling party instead of the live attendant,according to the disclosed embodiment.

These and other features and advantages, which characterize the presentinvention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detaileddescription and a review of the associated drawings. It is to beunderstood that the forgoing general description and the followingdetailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are notrestrictive of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of a wireline andwireless telecommunications network that provides an operatingenvironment for the present invention.

FIGS. 2-4 illustrates a logical flow of the steps performed by a methodand system of the present invention for allowing a calling party toaccess and save for subsequent review information received from aninformation retrieval system.

FIG. 5 illustrates a logical flow performed by a method and systemaccording to another disclosed embodiment of the present invention, forallowing recording and subsequent access of a session between a callingparty and a live attendant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description of an embodiment of the present invention ismade with reference to the above-described drawings wherein likenumerals refer to like parts or components throughout the severalfigures. The present invention is directed to a method and system forallowing a calling party to save for subsequent retrieval and reviewinformation obtained from an information retrieval system. According toan embodiment of the present invention, a calling party places a call toeither an interactive voice information retrieval system or to atelephone directory number that is associated with a telecommunicationsnetwork based voice mail system that provides interactive information tocalling parties. For example, a calling party may call a generalinformation retrieval system to which various companies, marketers orservice providers subscribe to provide general information to callingparties. Alternatively, a calling party may call directly to a businessor other service provider, and the call may be routed to a network-basedvoice mail system that provides for interactive information retrievals.

After the calling party places the call to either the generalinformation retrieval system or directly to the telephone directorynumber associated with a network-based voice mail system, the call iseither routed directly to the general information retrieval system orvia the telecommunications network to the network-based voice mailsystem. Once the calling party is connected to either type ofinformation retrieval system, and the calling party identifies theinformation the calling party desires, the calling party may simplylisten to the information in a conventional fashion over the handset ofthe calling party's telephone, or the calling party may select a numberof options to save the information to a memory location from which thecalling party may subsequently retrieve and review the saved informationat the calling party's convenience.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a calling party mayhave the information sent to and stored at the calling party's ownnetwork-based voice mail system, or the calling party may have theinformation sent to and stored at a temporary voice mail box provided bythe information provider. Alternatively, the calling party may have theinformation saved to a general information retrieval Internet-basedwebsite from which the calling party may subsequently download andreview the saved information. Alternatively, the calling party may havethe information forwarded to a separate telephone directory number forreceipt by a third person or for storing on a remote voice mail system.Additionally, the calling party may have the information electronicallymailed to the calling party's electronic mail address for subsequentreview.

Advantageously, according to embodiments of the present invention, thecalling party may obtain useful information from a general informationretrieval system or from a voice mail based information system and havethat information saved to a designated memory location from which thecalling party may later retrieve the information in a convenient andsafe manner. With this system, the calling party may review theinformation as many times as the calling party likes without the needfor redialing and connecting to the information retrieval source eachtime the calling party desires to review the information.

Operating Environment

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of a wireline andwireless telephone network that provides an exemplary operatingenvironment for the present invention. The public switched telephonenetwork that evolved in the 1980s incorporated the advanced intelligentnetwork (AIN). Some of the components of the advanced intelligentnetwork are illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is illustrative of at least apart of the advanced intelligent network (AIN) 100 of a typical localexchange carrier integrated with components of a wireless network 150.The advanced intelligent network (AIN) uses the signaling system 7 (SS7)network for signal or system control message transport. The componentsthereof are well known to those skilled in the art. The operation ofmany of the components of the advanced intelligent network is alsodescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,719 to Weisser entitled “Mediation ofOpen Advanced Intelligent Network Interface by Shared ExecutionEnvironment” which is incorporated herein by reference. The SS7communications protocol is provided in the document entitled “BellCommunications Research Specification of Signaling System 7,” DocumentTR-NWT-000246, Issue 2 (June 1991), plus Revision 1 (December 1991),which is also incorporated herein by reference.

A plurality of central offices are provided in a typical public switchedtelephone network. As shown in FIG. 1, each central office may includean electronic switch known to those skilled in the art as a serviceswitching point (SSP). These are indicated in FIG. 1 as SSP switches 12and 14. The number of SSP switches depends on the number of subscribersto be served by the public switched telephone network. An SSP is the AINcomponent of a typical electronic central office switch used by a localexchange carrier. The terms “SSP” and “switch” are used interchangeablyhereinafter and are understood to refer to a telecommunications switchhaving AIN capability and which may be utilized for connecting voicechannel circuits, including voice channel lines, such as trunk circuits30 and 32.

As shown in FIG. 1, switches (SSP) 12 and 14 have a plurality ofsubscriber lines 18 and 20 connected thereto. Each of the subscriberlines 18 and 20 is connected to a terminating piece or pieces ofcustomer premises equipment that are represented by telephones 21 and24. A computer 23 also is illustrated as connected to the switch 12 viathe subscriber line 18. The computer 23 is illustrative of a single or aplurality of computing and data storage devices. SSP switches 12 and 14are connected by a plurality of trunk circuits 30. These are the voicepath trunks that interconnect the central offices 12 and 14 and overwhich calls are connected when completed.

Each piece of terminating equipment in the PSTN is preferably assigned adirectory number. The term “directory number” is used herein in a mannerconsistent with its generally understood meaning of a number that isdialed or input by an originating party at an originating station toreach a terminating station associated with the directory number. Adirectory number, typically a ten digit number, is commonly referred toas a “telephone number” and may be assigned to a specific telephoneline, such as the telephone line 18 shown in FIG. 1.

Much of the intelligence, and the basis for many of the enhancedfeatures of the network, resides in the local service control point(SCP) 42 that is connected to signal transfer point 34 via SS7 data link44. As is known to those skilled in the art, service control points,such as the SCP 42, are physically implemented by relatively powerfulfault tolerant computers. Among the functions performed by the servicecontrol points is maintenance of network databases used in providingenhanced services. Service control points, such as SCP 42, normallyimplement high volume routing services, such as call forwarding and 800number translation and routing. They are also used for maintenance ofand providing access to high volume databases for authorization ofbilling, such as credit card number validations. In most local exchangecarrier networks, service control points are only used for data baselook up and routing services that take place prior to the logicalcompletion of the call, i.e., the provision of a ringing signal to thecalled subscriber line and ring back to the calling subscriber.

Additional devices for implementing advanced network functions withinthe AIN 100 are provided by regional STPs (not shown) and regional SCPs(not shown). The STP 34 is connected to the SSPs via connections 36, 38and 40. Both the regional SCPs and the local SCP 42, which represent aplurality of local SCPs distributed throughout the AIN 100, areconnected via respective data links to the SMS 46. The SMS 46 provides acentralized platform for remotely programming the various SCPs of theAIN 100 so that a coordinated information processing scheme may beimplemented for the AIN 100.

The modern Advanced Intelligent Network 100 also includes service nodes(SN) such as service node 55 shown in FIG. 1. Those skilled in the artare familiar with service nodes, which are physically implemented by thesame types of computers that embody the SCP 42. In addition to thecomputing capability and data base maintenance features, service nodes55 use ISDN lines and may include DTMF signal recognition devices, tonegeneration devices, text to speech (TTS) voice synthesis devices andother voice or data resources. As shown in FIG. 1, the connection isthrough the SSP. For example, SN 55 is connected to SCP 42 via ISDNlinks 54 to SSP 12, ISDN/SS7 protocol conversion in SSP 12, and SS7links 38 and 44. According to a preferred embodiment, the ISDN links 54serve as a primary rate interface (PRI) over which services may beprovided to subscribers using wireline services such as the wirelinetelephone sets 21 and 24 and subscribers using wireless services such asthe wireless units 54, 55, 60, and 62.

The voice mail system 65 is shown in FIG. 1 being functionally connectedto the switch 14 and is a component of the network 100. That is, callsare routed to and from the voice mail system 65 at the control anddirection of the network 100 via such components as the SCP 42. Thevoice mail system 65 typically includes a computer or collection ofcomputers, recording and recording playback devices, and software forrecording announcements for incoming calls, recording and playing backrecorded messages, and for receiving incoming calls and for makingoutgoing calls at the direction of the network 100. In addition to therecording and playback functionality, the voicemail system 65 includestext-to-speech voice synthesis devices and software for conversion ofanalog voice messages to digitized forms such as WAV files and MP3files. The voice mail system 65 has memory capacity for savingannouncements to incoming callers and for saving messages from incomingcallers. The computing system of the voicemail system 65 may send andreceive electronic mail via the network 100 and the Internet 70.

In accordance with the present invention, subscribers to voice mailservices of the service provider of the network 100 may use thevoicemail system 65 as a network-based information retrieval system fortheir customers or other incoming callers. For example, a physician'soffice may set up a voice mail greeting in the voicemail system 65 thatprovides callers with a variety of selections with each selectionproviding different information, such as driving instructions oroperating hours. According to an embodiment of the invention, thecalling party may direct the voicemail system 65 to save information toa memory location at the voice mail system 65, or the voice mail systemmay send that information to a remote storage location via the network100 to a forwarding telephone directory number, or via the Internet to awebsite or electronic mail address.

The information retrieval system (IRS) 85 is similar to the voice mailsystem 65 except that the IRS 85 is independent of the network 100. TheIRS 85 is reached by an incoming caller by dialing the telephonedirectory number of the IRS 85 as a terminating piece of premisesequipment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the IRS 85 is connected to atelephone 24 via a computer telephony interface, described below. Unlikethe voicemail system 65, calls routed to and from the IRS 85 are notcontrolled by the network 100, except to the extent that calls to andfrom the telephone 24, to which the IRS 85 is connected, are controlledby the network 100. Typically, the IRS 85 is operated by a third partyto the network 100 for providing information to callers on a variety ofsubjects. For example, a caller may call the IRS 85 and seek informationon sports, shopping, weather, commercial listings, and the like.

Like the voice mail system 65, the IRS 85 typically includes a computeror collection of computers, recording and recording playback devices,and software for recording announcements for incoming calls, recordingand playing back recorded messages, and for receiving incoming calls andfor making outgoing calls at the direction of the network 100. Inaddition to the recording and playback functionality, the IRS 85includes text-to-speech voice synthesis devices and software forconversion of analog voice messages to digitized forms such as WAV filesand MP3 files. The IRS 85 has memory capacity for saving announcementsto incoming callers and for saving messages from incoming callers. Thecomputing system of the IRS 85 may send and receive electronic mail viathe network 100 and the Internet 70. According to an embodiment of theinvention, the calling party may direct the IRS 85 to send savedinformation to the caller's network-based voice mail box at the voicemail system 65. The IRS may save information for the caller at atemporary memory location at the IRS 85. The IRS 85 may send savedinformation to a remote storage location via the network 100 to aforwarding telephone directory number, or via the Internet to a websiteor electronic mail address.

A computer telephony interface 83 serves as an interface between thecalled party's telephone 24 and the information retrieval system (IRS)85. Computer telephone integration, as facilitated by the computertelephony interface (CTI) 83, is a process for integration of atelephone system with a computing system. For example, the CTI 83 may beused for allowing computer applications to answer incoming calls,provide database information on a computer screen at the same time thecall comes in, automatically route and reroute calls, automatically dialand speed dial outgoing calls from a computer resident database andidentify incoming customer calls and transfer them to predetermineddestinations based on calling party identification received on theincoming telephone call. According to the present invention, the CTI 83serves as an interface between the called party's telephone 24 and theIRS 85 for linking information provided by the IRS 85 to an incomingtelephone call.

The computer telephony interface 83 may be a software applicationprogram resident on the called party telephone 24 for passinginformation such as calling party identification information on acalling party to the IRS 85. Alternatively, the computer telephonyinterface 83 may also include a software application program resident onthe IRS 85 for receiving and acting upon information received from thecalled party telephone 24 such as requests for information from thecalling party.

The Internet 70 is well known to those skilled in the art as essentiallya packet-switched network based on the family of protocols calledTransmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), a family ofnetworking protocols providing communication across interconnectednetworks between computers with diverse hardware architectures andbetween various computer operating systems. Operation of the Internet 70and the TCP/IP transmission protocols is well known to those skilled inthe art. The gateway 80 provides access to the Internet 70 by the othercomponents of the telecommunications network illustrated in FIG. 1. Asis well known to those skilled in the art, a gateway may provide anumber of functions including connectivity between incompatiblecommunications networks.

In operation, the intelligent network elements of the AIN 100, asdescribed above, communicate with each other via digital data messagestransmitted over the network of digital data links. An SSP may beconfigured to interface with these network elements through the use of atrigger. A trigger in the network is an event associated with aparticular subscriber line or call that causes the SSP to generate adata packet message to be sent to a service control point. In order tokeep the processing of data and calls as simple and generic as possibleat central office switches, such as SSP switches 12 and 14, a relativelysmall set of triggers are defined at the SSP switches for each call.

The message created by an SSP in response to the “firing” of a triggeris known as a “query” message. A query message opens a “transaction” andthe SSP generally holds the communication until it receives a reply froman appropriate network element via the network of digital data linksinstructing the SSP 12 to take a certain action. If the SSP 12 receivesno instructions within a certain amount of time, the SSP “times-out” andexecutes a default task for the communication. The reply to the querymessage may be a “conversation” message or a “response” message.Conversation messages allow for bi-directional exchanges between networkelements while the transaction remains open. A “response” message closesthe transaction opened by the query message, and usually instructs theSSP to route the held communication for connection with a terminatingstation. Query messages, conversation messages, and response messagesare standard types of messages defined by the AIN protocol. The detailsof the AIN protocol are well known to those skilled in the art and willnot be further described herein. For more information regarding the AINprotocol, see Bellcore Specification GR-1298-CORE Switching SystemsGeneric Requirements for AIN 0.1, which is incorporated herein byreference.

The wireless network 150, such as a cellular network, comprises a mobileswitching center (MSC) 52. The MSC 52 is a switch providing services andcoordination between wireless users in the network 150 and externalnetworks. The MSC 52 may be connected to the STP 34 to provideinformation to the wireline network 100 and receive information from thewireline network. The MSC 52 also communicates with a wirelesssubscriber, such as wireless telephones 54 and 55.

The wireless server 56 is a computer or collection of computers forhandling a variety of call processing features provided for the wirelesscomponents of the wireless network 150. In accordance with the presentinvention, the wireless server 56 contains software functionality forreceiving and implementing instructions for receiving wireless messagesin the form of saved information retrieved from an information retrievalsystem and forwarded to or electronically mailed to wireless devices,such as wireless telephones 54, 55 and wireless personal digitalassistants 60, 62. For example, if in accordance with the presentinvention a calling party desires to electronically mail savedinformation, such as driving instructions, to her personal digitalassistant 60, the electronic mail may be routed through the wirelessserver 56 via the Internet 70 and SCP 42. In this case, the wirelessserver performs the functions of a typical electronic mail server forreceiving message traffic, handling translations and addresses forsending e-mail to the wireless devices 60, 62 and for sending the e-mailto those devices.

Operation

Having described an operating environment for the present invention withreference to FIG. 1, FIGS. 2-4 illustrate the logical flow of the stepsperformed by a method and system of the present invention for allowing acalling party to save information obtained from an information retrievalsystem to a designated memory location from which the calling party maysubsequently retrieve and review the saved information. Referring toFIG. 2, the method 200 begins at start step 210 and proceeds to step 212where a calling party places a call to obtain information on a givensubject. For example, a calling party may be calling the telephonedirectory number of the calling party's physician to obtain drivingdirections to the physician's office. Alternatively, the calling partymay be calling a general information number from which the calling partywould like to obtain information on local movie theater show listings.

At step 216, if the calling party dials the direct telephone directorynumber of a business or organization that utilizes a network-based voicemail information system, the method proceeds to step 218, and thetelecommunications network 100 attempts to connect the calling party tothe subscriber line associated with the telephone directory numberaccording to normal call processing. Referring to FIG. 1, the callingparty calls from her telephone set 21 through her central office switch12 to a subscriber line 20 associated with the telephone directorynumber dialed by the calling party. For example, if the subscriber line20 is associated with the calling party's physician's office, accordingto normal call processing, a trunk line 30 is opened between the switch12 of the calling party and the switch 14 of the called party (forexample, the calling party's physician's office) and the call isconnected. However, according to the present invention, if the calledparty (e.g. calling party's physician's office) has subscribed to anetwork-based voice mail information system, the call is forwarded tothe voice mail system 65 to provide interactive information to thecalling party.

In accordance with intelligent network operations, the described callrouting is accomplished by provisioning a termination attempt trigger(TAT) on the called party's switch 14. When the call from the callingparty is directed to the called party's switch 14, the terminationattempt trigger causes a query to the service control point 42 that, inturn, performs a services look-up to determine whether any specialservices have been subscribed to by the called party. According to thepresent invention, the service control point look-up determines that thecalled party has subscribed to an interactive voice mail informationretrieval service according to the present invention. Once the call isrouted to the voice mail system 65, as described, the method proceeds tostep 228, described in detail below.

Referring back to step 216, if the calling party does not dial adirectory number associated with a called party that has subscribed to anetwork-based voice mail information system, the method proceeds to step220. At step 220, a determination is made as to whether the callingparty has dialed the telephone directory number of a third partyinformation retrieval system, as described above. If not, the methodproceeds to step 222, and the call is processed according to normal callprocessing and the method ends at step 290. That is, if the call is notdirected to either a telephone directory number associated with anetwork-based voice mail information retrieval system or to a thirdparty information retrieval system, the call is routed to the subscriberline associated with the telephone directory number dialed by thecalling party at which point the call is either answered by the calledparty, not answered by the called party, forwarded by the called party,or the call may be directed to the called party's voice mail system orlocal voice mail machine.

If at step 220 a determination is made that the call is directed to athird party information retrieval system at the IRS 85, such as a systemoperated for providing general marketing or public service informationabout its subscribers to calling parties, the method proceeds to step224, and the call is routed to the telephone directory number associatedwith the information retrieval system 85. For example, at step 224, thecalling party using her telephone set 21 dials the telephone directorynumber of an information retrieval system operated off the subscriberline 20 connecting the telephone set 24 to the central office 14. Incontrast to the call processing discussed with reference to thenetwork-based voice mail system, described above, the present call doesnot encounter a termination attempt trigger at the called party's switch14 to cause the telephone network 100 to route the telephone call to anetwork-based voice mail system. In this case, the call is routeddirectly to the subscriber line 20 and to the telephone set 24associated with the telephone directory number dialed by the callingparty and associated with the information retrieval company to which thecall is directed.

When the call reaches the telephone 24, at step 226, the computertelephony interface 83 between the called party's telephone 24 and theinformation retrieval system 85 allows the calling party's call to bedirected to the computing system and information retrieval functionalityof the information retrieval system 85, described with reference toFIG. 1. Once the calling party is connected to the information retrievalsystem 85 via the computer telephony interface 83, the calling party maynow obtain information on a variety of topics from the informationretrieval system. For example, the calling party may be provided withprompts such as “for information on a given topic, speak the topic intoyour hand set.” Using the voice activated responses or keypad entriesprompted by the information retrieval system 85, the calling partynarrows her information query to find information on a specific topic ofinterest, for example, local movie show listings or driving directions.

At step 228, whether the call was directed to the networked-based voicemail system described with reference to step 218, or to the nonnetwork-based information retrieval system described with reference tosteps 224 and 226, information options are provided to the callingparty. For example, once the calling party has identified the particularinformation the calling party would like to hear, such as drivingdirections, movie show listings, sports information and the like, thecalling party is provided with options for listening to the selectedinformation and/or saving the information to a designated memorylocation for subsequent retrieval and review by the calling party.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the calling partymay be provided a series of prompts from either the voice mail system 65according to the network-based embodiment or from the generalinformation retrieval system 85 through the computer telephony interface83 according to the non network-based system. For example, the callingparty may be prompted to “press or say ‘I’ if the calling party wouldlike to save the information to a designated memory location.” If thecalling party selects this option, the calling party may then be giventhe option of saving the information to the calling party's voicemailbox operated via the voice mail system 65. Alternatively, if thecalling party does not have a voice mailbox operated by the voice mailsystem 65, the calling party may be provided the option of saving theinformation to a temporary voice mailbox at the voice mail system 65.Alternatively, the calling party may be provided the option of savingthe information to an Internet-based website from which the callingparty may subsequently retrieve and review the information.

According to another embodiment, the calling party may be provided theoption of forwarding the information to a third party telephonedirectory number to be received by a third party or to be saved at avoice mail system associated with the forwarding number. Alternatively,the calling party may be provided the option of having the informationelectronically mailed to the calling party at an e-mail addressdesignated by the calling party. For all the options provided to thecalling party, the calling party may also be provided the option ofhaving the information saved only without hearing the information playedto the calling party, or the calling party may be provided the option ofhaving the information played to the calling party in the normal fashionover the calling party's telephone handset followed by saving theinformation according to the calling party's selected saving option.

At step 230, the voice mail system 65 according to the network-basedembodiment or the general information retrieval system 85 according tothe non network-based embodiment receives the options and instructionsfrom the calling party as to the desired disposition of the informationto be provided to the calling party. Referring to FIG. 3, at step 232,if the calling party has selected to hear the information only and notto have the information saved to a designated memory location, themethod proceeds to step 234 and the information is played to the callingparty followed by a presentation of call completion options to thecalling party. That is, after the information is played to the callingparty, the calling party may be provided other options such as “if youdesire additional information, please stay on the line for anattendant,” or “if you would like to hear this information again, pleasepress 1.” The method then ends at step 290.

If at step 232 the calling party has selected one of the above-describedinformation saving options, the method proceeds to steps 236, 248, 254or 260 according to the options selected by the calling party. If thecalling party decides to save the information to her voice mailbox, themethod proceeds to step 235, and a determination is made as to whetherthe calling party has a voice mailbox in the voice mail system 65 of thetelecommunications system 100. This determination is made based on thetelephone directory number of the calling party. During the initialquery to the SCP 42 to determine that the calling party's call should bedirected to the voice mail system 65, the SCP 42 may determine that thetelephone directory number of the calling party is associated with avoice mailbox in the voice mail system 65 of the telecommunicationsnetwork.

If the calling party does have a voice mailbox in the voice mail system65, the method proceeds to step 236, and the information designated bythe calling party is saved in the calling party's network-based voicemailbox at the voice mail system 65. If the information to be saved iscoming from the voice mail system 65 as is the case with thenetwork-based voice mail information retrieval, described above, theinformation may simply be routed from the voice mailbox of the calledparty (e.g., physician's office) directly to the voice mailbox of thecalling party both at the voice mail system 65. However, if theinformation to be saved is coming from the non network-based informationretrieval system 85 operated by a third party outside thetelecommunications network 100, the information must be routed to thecalling party's voice mailbox at the voice mail system 65.

In order to properly route the information, the information retrievalsystem 85 prompts the calling party at step 236 to provide it with thecalling party's telephone directory number that is associated with hervoice mailbox at the voice mail system 65. Based on that information,the information retrieval system 85 may then place a call to thetelephone directory number of the calling party in order to deposit thesaved information in the calling party's voice mailbox at the voice mailsystem 65. Once the information designated for saving by the callingparty is saved in the voice mail system 65, the voice mail may be sentdirectly to the calling party to allow the calling party to listen tothe voice mail, or the system may alert the calling party with astandard message waiting indicator signal, such as a flashing light ather telephone 21 or a tone heard over the speaker of her telephone.

If at step 235, a determination is made that the calling party does nothave a voice mailbox at the voice mail system 65, the method proceeds tostep 238, and a determination is made as to whether the calling partydesires that the information be saved to a temporary voice mailbox. Thatis, a prompt may be provided to the calling party under either thenetwork-based voice mail system embodiment or under the nonnetwork-based information retrieval system embodiment to ask the callingparty whether the calling party would like to have the information savedin a temporary mailbox. If at step 238, the calling party elects to havethe information saved in a temporary voice mailbox, the method proceedsto step 240 and a memory location is set aside at the voice mail system65 or at the information retrieval system 85 for saving the informationfor the calling party. At step 242, the calling party is prompted with atemporary telephone number and password for dialing into the temporaryvoice mailbox for retrieving the saved information. At step 246, theinformation designated for saving by the calling party is saved to thetemporary voice mailbox. Information saved to the temporary voicemailbox may be saved for some specified period of time, such as one houror one day, according to the arrangement agreed to by the calling party.For example, when the calling party is prompted to set up the temporaryvoice mailbox, the calling party may be able to select the amount oftime the temporary mailbox is maintained by paying a varying amount offee.

Referring to FIG. 4, after the information is saved at either thepermanent voice mailbox, described with respect to step 236, or at thetemporary voice mailbox, the method proceeds to step 266, and adetermination is made as to whether the calling party desires to hearthis information over the calling party's telephone 21. If the callingparty does desire to hear the information, the method proceeds to step268 and the information is played to the calling party. If not, themethod proceeds directly to step 270, and the calling party is providedwith any additional available options, for example, hearing theinformation again, holding for an attendant, and the like. The methodthen proceeds to step 272 where the calling party may dial into thevoice mailbox or temporary voice mailbox to retrieve the savedinformation at the calling party's convenience. The method ends at step290.

Referring back to step 232, if the calling party decides to save theinformation to an information retrieval website, the method proceeds tostep 248. According to this embodiment of the present invention, ageneral information retrieval website may be set up via the Internet 70and gateway 80, as illustrated in FIG. 1. At step 248, if the callingparty elects to save the information to the information retrievalwebsite, the method proceeds to step 250, and the calling party isprovided a prompt giving the calling party website information, such asthe website address and a password for retrieving saved information fromthe website. At step 252, the saved information is forwarded to theinformation retrieval website. Prior to sending the saved information tothe information retrieval website, the voice mail system 65 orinformation retrieval system 85 first converts the saved voiceinformation into a digitized audio format such as WAV or MP3. Thedigitized audio formatted version of the saved information is then sentto the website from which the calling party may download the audio fileto listen to the saved information.

If the information is being saved from the network-based voice mailsystem 65, the information is routed back through the central office 14and data lines 38 and 42 to the SCP 42. The information is then routedfrom the SCP 42 through the gateway 80 to the Internet 70 and to theinformation retrieval website. If the information is being saved fromthe third party information retrieval system 85, the information issubmitted directly from the information retrieval system 85 via theInternet 70 to the information retrieval website. The method thenproceeds to step 266, and processing continues for steps 266 throughstep 270, as described above. At step 272, the calling party mayretrieve the saved information by logging on to the informationretrieval website from the calling party's computer 23. Once the callingparty connects to the information retrieval website, the calling partymay use the password to access, review, download or listen to the storedinformation.

Referring back to step 232, if the calling party elects to forward theinformation to a forwarding number, the method proceeds to step 254 andthe calling party responds to a prompt indicating that the calling partydesires to forward the information to a forwarding telephone directorynumber. The calling party may desire to forward the information to athird person who needs the information for some purpose, or the callingparty may desire to send the information to the calling party's hometelephone directory number, for example, and have the information playedto a home based voice mail machine.

At step 256, the calling party is prompted to enter a forwardingtelephone directory number. At step 258, the information is forwarded tothe forwarding telephone number. In order to forward the information tothe forwarding telephone directory number, the voice mail system 65 orthe information retrieval system 85 places a call to the forwardingtelephone directory number according to normal call processingprocedures. If the forwarding telephone directory number is answered, orif a voice mail machine or voice mail system answers at the forwardingtelephone directory number, the information designated for saving by thecalling party is played either to the person answering the forwardingtelephone directory number or to the voice mail machine or voice mailsystem answering the call. The method then proceeds to step 266 and isprocessed as described above for steps 266 through 270. At step 272, thecalling party may retrieve the information from the third partyanswering the forwarding telephone directory number, or from the voicemail machine or voice mail system answering at the forwarding telephonedirectory number.

Referring back to step 232, if the calling party elects to have theinformation electronically mailed to the calling party at a designatede-mail address, the method proceeds to step 260. At step 260, if thecalling party has elected to have the information e-mailed to thecalling party's e-mail address, the method proceeds to step 262, and thecalling party is prompted to enter an e-mail address. If the callingparty is a subscriber to the telecommunications system under which thevoice mail system 65 operates, the calling party may have previouslystored her e-mail address with a customer profile with hertelecommunications service provider so that the voice mail system 65 mayaccess the e-mail address of the calling party from the SCP 42.Alternatively, the calling party may enter an electronic mail addressvia a voice recognition system operated by either the voice mail system65 or the information retrieval system 85. Alternatively, according toanother alternative, if the calling party desires to use the services ofthe information retrieval system 85 on a regular basis, or of the voicemail system 65 via her telecommunications service provider, the callingparty may provide her electronic mail address to both entities prior tousing the information retrieval functionality.

At step 264, the information designated for saving by the calling partyis converted by either the voice mail system 65 or the informationretrieval system 85 into a digitized form such as WAV or MP3. Thedigitized audio formatted versions of the saved information are thenelectronically mailed to the electronic mail address provided by thecalling party. The method then proceeds to step 266, and processingcontinues for steps 266 through 270, as described above. At step 272,the calling party may retrieve the saved information via her electronicmail system. The method ends at step 290.

FIG. 5 illustrates logic flow for recording a conversation between acaller and a live attendant or operator, according to another disclosedembodiment of the present invention. The method and system embodying theoperations shown and described with respect to FIG. 5 may incorporatethe operating environment described above with regard to FIG. 1. Inaddition, as will become apparent below, the voice-recording embodimentpreferably includes a capability of performing automated voice-to-textconversion, that is, a computer-implemented output of text based onspeech input. The voice-to-text capability for the embodiment of FIGS. 5and 6 is implemented, for example, in the voicemail system 65 or theinformation retrieval system 85 shown in FIG. 1. Voice-to-textconversion software is known to those skilled in the art and need not bedescribed in detail herein.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 commences when a caller at 502 reaches alive attendant after placing a call seeking information from aninformation retrieval system. The caller may reach that live attendantonly after navigating through one or more levels of an automatedattendant system, or in the alternative may reach the live attendantwhen the call is answered. In any case, that call may have been placedeither through a voicemail-based system as shown at 216 in FIG. 2, orthrough an independent information retrieval system as at 220 in thatfigure. Whatever the routing of the information-seeking call, the methodand system described with respect to FIG. 5 assumes that the caller hasnow reached a live attendant, who asks at 504 whether the caller wants arecording made of the call. If a caller answers in the negative, thenthe call proceeds in the usual manner without any recording as shown at506.

Assuming the caller tells the live attendant at 504 that recording thecall is desired, the attendant at 508 tells the caller that theresultant recording may be made available to the caller either as anaudio (i.e., voice recording) file or as converted to a text file (e.g.,by an automated voice-to-text conversion).

The live attendant at 510 also prompts the caller for at least onedelivery option, for example, whether the caller prefers to access thecall record (either audio or converted text) by email or by accessing aWebsite. After the caller tells the live attendant which kind of recordand manner of delivery are preferred, the attendant at 512 determineswhether the caller has a default address for the requested mode ofdelivery. The default may be, for example, the caller's email addressobtained when the caller first opened an account. If the callerindicates delivery of a voice recording by email, then this emailaddress may be a likely default address for delivering the record of thecall. For applications where the caller is a subscriber to the calledsource of information or has otherwise previously established an emailaddress or an Internet web site preference with the source ofinformation, that default information may appear on a display screenavailable to the live attendant while the call is in progress. Forexample, that information could be made available to the live attendantin response to the directory number of the caller, or in response to anaccount number or other identification given by the caller earlierduring the information caller in progress.

If the caller lacks a default delivery address, or if the caller at 514prefers delivery of the record to an address other then the default one,the process branches at 516 and the attendant requests the caller togive an alternatively delivery address. Once the live attendant knowsthe caller's preferences with respect to the modes of recording anddelivery, then at 518 the attendant initiates recording of the call.Calling initiation may be through an operator-actuated key or keystrokeoperative to initiate the voice-recording aspect of the voicemail system65 or the information retrieval system 85, as previously stated. If thecaller previously requested making available the call record as an audiofile, the system as shown at 520 records the conversation in an audiofile using an appropriate format for file storage and subsequent access.If the caller previously requested a text-base record of theconversation, then at 522 a voice-to-text conversion of the conversationis generated as described above. The voice-to-text conversion may bemade on-the-fly while the call is in progress, or in the alternative maybe generated from a recorded audio file after the call is completed. Theresulting text generation is saved to a text file at 524 in a formatsuitable for storing, emailing, and subsequent access by the caller, forexample via a web site.

The recording terminates either when the call ends at 526, or undercontrol of the live operator. Once the call ends, the audio file or textfile is completed and saved for delivery, either to the email orvoicemail (audio only) address previously indicated by the caller or toa Web address according to the caller's request. The caller at 528 maythen access and retrieve a record of the conversation with the liveoperator, either as an email message delivered to the caller or bylogging onto the Website as previously selected. Customary loginprocedures for accessing the caller's email account or the Website maybe employed as understood by those skilled in the art, to preventunauthorized third-party access to the delivered record of the call. Ifthe message is delivered in an audio format, the caller can listen toall or part of the information in his or her own voice (and the voice ofthe live attendant) at the caller's own pace. Voicemail typically allowsthe user to replay, pause, rewind a few seconds, and so on, so thatlistening to a lengthy message filled with information is easier from avoicemail box then when the information is given during the phone call.

If the audio record of the call is delivered to a Website for access,the Web playback of that audio file can likewise include screen-actuatedrecording functions such as play, stop, pause, and so on. The voicerecord will be heard either from the speaker associated with thecomputer used to accessed the Website, or with headphones attached tothe computer, as the caller chooses.

If the call record goes into the caller's voicemail box, the voicemailsystem can either out-dial a call to the caller to listen to thevoicemail, or the system can alert the caller with a standardmessage-waiting indicator signal that the voicemail is in the mailbox.In the latter case, the caller then would have to dial into thevoicemail system in the customary manner, to listen to the record of thecall.

If the caller desires access by voicemail but lacks an existingvoicemail box, the live operator can assign a temporary mailbox to givethe caller access to the call record. If the call record is put into atemporary mailbox setup by the information retrieval service, theservice (either by the live attendant or by a message announcement)would provide the number and optionally an access code that allows thecaller to access information in the temporary mailbox. Alternatively,the system can allow the caller immediate access to the temporarymailbox without having to dial in, if the caller desires and soindicates to the live attendant. The information retrieval service couldcharge the user to set up and maintain a temporary mailbox, and thattemporary mailbox could hold the recorded information for apredetermined period of time after which the caller record would beautomatically deleted.

Although the live attendant prompted the caller at 510 for at least onedelivery option in the exemplary embodiment described with reference toFIG. 5, providing a delivery option is not an event that need beperformed in any particular sequence. For example, a default mode ofdelivery and a corresponding default address may be chosen by thecalling party before beginning the session with the live attendant. Inone embodiment, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) prompts the callerfor a delivery destination or address, as well as for the format of therecording (which may include by audio or by text). Selecting thedelivery mode and address may also take place after the recordingsession concludes, by suitable prompts to the caller at that time.Moreover, recording a session with a live attendant may also beinitiated by the calling party instead of the attendant, for example, inresponse to the caller entering a predetermined number sequence on thephone dial keypad in response to an automated or operator prompt. Forexample, the caller may also be prompted by an IVR, prior to beingconnected with the operator, to select whether the caller wishes torecord the session. The IVR responds to the caller's selection, and ifthe caller has chosen to have the conversation with the attendantrecorded, then the recording may begin once the caller is connected withthe attendant. With respect to yet another exemplary feature, prior toconnecting the caller with an attendant, the IVR may instruct the callerthat he or she can begin recording of a communication session by pushinga number or sequence of numbers using his/her keypad. During theconversation with the attendant, the caller may begin recording of thesession by inputting that number or sequence of numbers. Once the systemreceives the number or sequence of numbers, recording of the session maybegin.

The caller-initiated option for recording sessions with a live attendantshould benefit both the caller and the provider of the informationretrieval system, as the attendant known the session is being recordedfor later access by the caller.

In the forgoing description, call routing was discussed in terms ofwireline telephones with reference to telephones 21 and 24, illustratedin FIG. 1. It should be understood that calls to and from the voice mailsystem 65 and the information retrieval system 85 are equally effectiveto and from the wireless telephones 54 and 55 and to and from thepersonal digital assistant 60 and 62, illustrated in FIG. 1.Additionally, any information saved by the calling party in accordancewith the present invention, that is directed an electronic mail addressor other wireless digital assistant 60, 62 may be routed first throughthe wireless server 56 for formatting as required for presentation tothe calling party at the wireless personal digital assistants 60, 62.Further yet, it should be understood that calls placed by VOIP phones orother VOIP-enabled devices to and from the telecommunications networkare effective to obtain the functions and advantages of the inventiondescribed herein. In the case of a VOIP-enabled computer, for example, acalling party could be presented with on-screen prompts to initiaterecording a session with a live attendant (for example, either before orduring the conversation with the attendant), to select the form of therecord and the mode of delivery, and for other options associated withrecording the session and subsequently accessing the recording.

In yet another embodiment, each conversation with an attendant isrecorded as a matter of course. Toward the end of the conversation withthe attendant, the attendant may prompt the caller to ask whether he orshe would like access a recording of the conversation that had justtaken place. The attendance may also ask the user to specify deliveryaddress or destination, as well as a recording format. The destinationor address may be an email address, or an Internet location accessiblevia the Worldwide Web (WWW). The format may be, for example, text oraudio. The attendant processes the request of the caller accordingly,for example by entry of his or her responses into the system. After therecording has been delivered, or saved to a location, the caller is ableto access the recording. Alternatively, after the conversation with theattendant, the caller may be prompted by the IVR to select whether he orshe wishes to have a recording of the conversation sent to him or her.The IVR may also prompt the caller to obtain a destination or address(or to choose his or her default destination if one exists), and mayalso additionally prompt the caller to obtain a preferred format of therecording (if no default exists, or the caller chooses not to select thedefault option). The IVR would process the caller's responsesaccordingly, and the recording may be sent to a caller's email addressor saved to a location accessible by the caller via the WWW.

As described herein, a method and system are provided for allowing acalling party to save to a designated memory location informationobtained from a network-based voice mail system or from a nonnetwork-based information retrieval system for subsequent review by thecalling party. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatvarious modifications and variations may be made in the presentinvention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art fromconsideration of the specification and practice of the inventiondisclosed herein.

1. A method of saving information obtained from a telephony-basedinformation retrieval system, the method comprising: receiving a callfrom a calling party to a called party for voice communication with alive attendant to obtain information; initiating voice recording of thecommunication with the live attendant through an information retrievalsystem associated with the called party; saving the voice recording to amemory location for subsequent access by the calling party; providing atleast one information delivery option to the calling party for accessingthe voice recording; and making the memory location available forsubsequent accessing of the saved voice recording by the calling party.2. The method of claim 1, wherein saving the voice recording comprisessaving an audio file of the voice recording to a designated memorylocation, for subsequent access by the calling party.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising delivering the audio file to a designatedelectronic mail address for subsequent access and playback of the audiofile by the calling party.
 4. The method of claim 2, further comprisingdelivering the audio file to a designated Internet-based web site forsubsequent access and playback of the audio file by the calling party.5. The method of claim 4, wherein the web site is a default sitepreviously designated for delivery of the audio file.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising giving the calling party an option todesignate a different web site, instead of the default site, fordelivery of the audio file.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprisingpreparing a machine translation of the recorded voice communication toproduce a text file; and making the text file available for subsequentretrieval by the calling party.
 8. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising delivering the text file of the machine translation to adesignated electronic mail address for subsequent access by the callingparty.
 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising delivering the textfile of the machine translation to a designated Internet-based web sitefor subsequent access by the calling party.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the called party has the option of initiating the voicerecording of the communication with the live attendant.
 11. The methodof claim 1, wherein the calling party has the option of initiating thevoice recording of the communication with the attendant
 12. A system forsaving information obtained from a telephony-based information retrievalsystem, comprising: an information retrieval system associated with acalled party and operative: to receive a call from a calling party to acalled party for voice communication with a live attendant to obtaininformation; to initiate voice recording of the communication with thelive attendant through an information retrieval system associated withthe called party; to save the voice recording to a memory location forsubsequent access by the calling party; to provide at least oneinformation delivery option to the calling party for accessing the voicerecording; and to make the memory location available for subsequentaccessing of the saved voice recording by the calling party.
 13. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the information retrieval system saves anaudio file of the voice recording to a designated memory location, forsubsequent access by the calling party.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein the information retrieval system delivers the audio file to adesignated electronic mail address for subsequent access and playback ofthe audio file by the calling party.
 15. The system of claim 13, whereinthe information retrieval system delivers the audio file to a designatedInternet-based web site for subsequent access and playback of the audiofile by the calling party.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein theinformation retrieval system delivers the audio file to a default website in response to a previous designation of the default web site fordelivery of the audio file.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein theinformation retrieval system gives the calling party an option todesignate a different web site, instead of the default site, fordelivery of the audio file.
 18. The system of claim 12, wherein: theinformation retrieval system prepares a machine conversion of therecorded voice communication to produce a text file; and makes the textfile available for subsequent retrieval by the calling party.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the information retrieval system deliversthe text file of the machine conversion to a designated electronic mailaddress for subsequent access by the calling party.
 20. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the information retrieval system delivers the textfile of the machine conversion to a designated Internet-based web sitefor subsequent access by the calling party.
 21. The system of claim 12,wherein the information retrieval system gives the calling party theoption of initiating the voice recording of the communication with thelive attendant.